Wednesday, September 30, 2009

This is a quick way to prepare a delicious and healthy vegetable as a side for bento (or dinner). One bunch of horenso (spinach) will shrink down considerably, so you may need to cook a second batch. Simply toss the washed spinach into the pan with olive oil and chopped garlic, and stirfry until wilted. At the very end, add a splash of shoyu for flavor and sprinkle with sesame seeds. That's it. Easy, right? You may notice that I cook a lot of things in this exact same manner. Well, it's true that I like quick prep meals, and fewer ingredients also means there's less to remember, and you will probably have everything you need already in the house. Always a plus :)

I'd also like to say Thank you Michelle at Foodie Footsteps for the Over the Top Award!

The rules of this award are to (I'm copying Michelle's words here): answer the questions with only one worded answers (those are below)- thank the blogger who gave it to you over and over and over (that's exaggerated a bit) :)- pass it on to 6 of your favorite blogs. I hereby grant this award to:

This is what my goldfish cutter looks like. Similar to the double flower one, it is mounted on a "handle" for easier manipulation, and also to provide stability to the design while pressing.

This one has lots more detail, including rounded eyes and a cool fantail. The eye circles are soldered to the handle to stay in place. These pictures all show the bottom of the cutter; the part which actually cuts the vegetable. The metal is very thin and gives a nice sharp edge. The eyes are so tiny, though, that the carrot gets stuck...and must be removed with a straight pin :)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Koffing Pokémon, made of Okinawan sweet potato with satsumaimo and regular sweet potato detail. Toxic yellow cauliflower "gases", atop homemade vegetarian pad thai. Peapods, purple cauliflower, and "lotus cut" radish. True lotus should have been more curving at the bottom; I will try again next time. It added a bit of bright red accent to this side which I felt it needed.

MisterMan has currently interrupted his Star Wars phase to obsessively read the series of Pokémon books he inherited from his cousins when we visited over Labor Day... he would stay up all night if we let him :|

Monday, September 28, 2009

Jade rice is white rice that has been infused with bamboo extract, lending it a lovely green color. It is supposed to be highly nutritious, with 10g of fiber, 5g of protein and antioxidants in each 1/4 cup. The company brand name that I found is Lotus Foods, and you may be able to find it in a natural food or gourmet grocery, sold in bulk. As you can see, it is very pretty.

You cook it as you would cook white rice. In my batch, I mixed it with brown rice, which probably diluted the color, but even when cooked alone, the green color washes out, unfortunately. The resulting cooked rice looks much like regular white/brown rice.

But, it really does have a distinct flavor, something vegetative... it's nice and lightly aromatic. If you can find it, you might like to try it yourself!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Pad Thai is a very popular noodle dish and one of the few Thai recipes that can be adjusted nicely to suit those who favor less spicy flavoring. It also has the added benefit of providing a means of offering all kinds of vegetables that kids might not otherwise be likely to eat on their own! You might like to try it with your own kids, or other picky non-veggie eaters. Besides the veggie aspect, the fact that it is a noodle dish makes it a great standard, and one we often turn to in our kitchen. It's quite easy to prepare at home.

First, start with the noodles. You will use rice sticks, the kind which are wide and broad. Soak them first in hot water until they soften, about 20 minutes, and then boil them for 5 more minutes or so until they are just done, but not mushy. You may have to keep watch on them, and taste for done-ness. When they are done, drain and rinse. Let rest in a colander. In the meantime, you can prepare the vegetables: I used bean sprouts, julienned carrots, chopped bok choy, green onion. I don't stick to traditional recipes; it's okay to use whatever vegetables you like. Also, you should use fried tofu, which can be purchased in the refrigerated section of your local Asian grocery.

Chop the tofu into small cubes. Heat the wok or skillet, and saute some chopped garlic in olive oil for a few minutes. Add 3 lightly beaten eggs, and scramble. Then, throw in your chopped veggies, noodles and tofu. Stir fry until everything is heated through. Add a mixture of 1/4C fish sauce (note: there is a vegetarian fish sauce, available at Vietnamese groceries. It does not have the anchovy, but it contains a mixture of soy beans, salt, sugar, water, chili, and citric acid as a preservative since this type isn't fermented), 1/4C lime juice, and 2T sugar (double if necessary). If you like it spicy, you may add crushed red pepper, chili sauce or sriracha -- but in our house we add it after serving, to suit individual varying tastes. Toss in chopped peanuts and green onion.

Now doesn't it look good? You may also serve it with a slice of lime to garnish, and cilantro on the side. Enjoy! Don't forget, pad thai is excellent the next day, and makes a great bento lunch :)

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Here's an empty view of my new bento box. It has two tiers ~ a shallow one on top (shown on the right), which fits over the deeper bowl on the left. There are two locking mechanisms to ensure a tight seal, and two handles on the lid which can be raised for carrying, and folded flat for packing. It's quite sturdy and strong, and I expect it to withstand at least a year of 6-year-old swinging lunchbag action! (hopefully ;)

Right now it's so shiny and new...and full of bento lunch possibilities for the year ahead.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Homemade vegetarian pad thai, which the kids LOVE! I made a huge batch so you may see this lunch again in a slightly different form. Top shallow tier is lined with lettuce and filled with pad thai, with broccoflower, purple and yellow carrot skewers, and tomato flowers with peapod and yellow carrot detail. Lower tier has strawberry, tangerine, Dapple Dandy baby plum, green plum, raspberries, and satsumaimo elephant.

Did you notice my brand-new stainless steel two-tier bento?! I found it at the Autumn Moon Festival in San Francisco and it's so neat and cool I can barely stand it. The shallow top tier fits snugly into the top lip of the bottom. The tight-fitting lid even has handles you can lift up for carrying and press flat for packing ~ isn't it cute? ;)

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The good thing about wontons is that they are easy to put into soup for a healthy, tasty meal...and they also go well in bento because they taste just as good cold or room temp. There is a bit of preparation time involved, but not too much. I used ground pork, which is traditional, but you could easily substitute turkey or chicken if you prefer. Season with shoyu, salt, sugar, pepper, garlic and a little cornstarch. I mixed in chopped baby bok choy because I like the crunch and the green color it adds. You can also add chopped green onions. The filling should look something like this.

Next, place a tiny amount in the center of the wrapper. I like to use square ones, because that is how my mom taught me. I thought these were square, but it turns out they were rectangular! Oh well, it doesn't matter that much, I guess.

It's important that you don't overfill them, as it will be difficult to close, and then you run the risk of them popping open later. Dip your fingertips in water and wet two adjacent edges of the wrapper. Press those edges to the other side, folding the wrapper into a triangle. Try to press out any air pockets.

You can see here that my triangle is imperfect, due to my rectangular wrapper. If you bought square ones, you will get a nice, perfect triangle. Good for you. Oh, and make sure you use medium thickness, not thin, as they will hold up better during cooking. Next, make a pinch in the bottom edge and bring the two side corners down to meet and overlap.

Wet the corners to seal.

Repeat with the rest of the filling, till you are done! If you calculated right, you should come out even. Today, I got lucky! Filling and wrappers came out even. Yay!

Halfway done. Look how cute they look, sitting together like that. When you are ready to cook, set a pot of water to boil. Place the wontons in gently and make sure they don't touch the bottom of the pan, or they might stick there. Cook for one more minute after they float to the surface. This is how my mom taught me; she really did not give me a more specific cooking time than that. You should watch them, because it won't take more than 5 minutes or so.

All done! Drain and cool. You can serve them in a chicken broth-based soup, with some choy, onions, mushrooms, garlic and green onion, even spinach. This is what we did for dinner tonight. It was a hit with everyone, especially the kids :) The leftover wontons made it into bento for tomorrow; see my latest on my flickr photostream.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Yeah, it's the hand-cut metal flower cutter with internal flower cut-out... and I love it!! I used it to cut satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato) and regular sweet potato flowers. There is also a yellow carrot flower, peapods, purple and yellow cauliflower, cherry and pear tomatoes, and purple carrot skewer. Main meal is leftover pasta with sausage and mushroom, onion and peppers. Fruit side has the sweet green plum, strawberries and grapes underneath.

We spent the day at the Autumn Moon Street Festival in SF Chinatown, and got back late, and it was too dark in the house so I had to take the pic outside on the patio... so this explains the stray twigs and grass (no time to sweep for a neat photo).

I did get more hand-made vegetable cutters... and I will post about them when I get around to using them. One in particular is quite large, and I need to find a vegetable with enough girth to use it!!

In our family, 4 toasts every morning and the occasional sandwich for lunch means we go through a loaf of bread a week...so I turned to homebaked bread for economical reasons. But what I discovered is that there are other pleasures of homebaked bread, including the way it makes the house smell so homey and warm. MisterMan announced as soon as he walked in the door after school, "I see you're baking bread!" Also, there's nothing quite so much fun as add-ins...and we've tried all kinds of nuts and dried fruits, spices like cinnamon and cocoa, and even healthy stuff they'll never notice like flaxmeal and wheat germ. This loaf has whole wheat, 10 grain cereal, honey and walnuts. Next week, maybe sour cream and pistachios?

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I have a kind of obsession with miniatures, and you may see a few mini bento when the mood strikes me, and when I have extra time to *waste*. I like to use only edible stuff, since they usually are part of an actual snack bento for my toddler girl, TinySprite. This bento features a mini pizza, made from a whole wheat tortilla and spread with real tomato-basil sauce. The toppings are chopped green peppers, mushrooms, real pepperoni rounds, and shredded cheddar cheese. It is "raw", as I didn't actually bake it :) The rest of the bento includes champagne grapes, yellow pear tomato, pasta spirals, broccoflower, peach wedges, blackberry, strawberries, and spinach leaf. She really did eat it all, even the spinach leaf. :)

This is how the cutting edge looks. The flower petals are crimped and soldered to stay in place and connected to the little center flower. It's so cute and supercool at the same time! They had lots of other designs and I will definitely want to go back for more :)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Well, it was a beautiful day for the street festival, and if you follow me on twitter you know that there were all kinds of stuff to be seen and eaten. But the highlight for me was finding cool vegetable cutters and a couple new bento boxes, including a bamboo steamer basket that I need to customize for a special mini bento in the works!

The kids ate the salmon in sandwiches with crusty French bread for dinner, and used the sauce on all the veggies :) This bento box has a clear lid, and I should have taken a pic of it in MisterMan's lunchbag -- it looks so cool, like a little garden in his bag ^ - ^

I took this photo outside since it was such a cloudy, dark day (too dark in the house), and it looks so much brighter (and overexposed) than usual! Right as I was taking it, it started to pour, so I got lucky ....

Monday, September 14, 2009

This is a happy and fresh one to remind us of those long-lost days of summer *sigh*
OK, it's only been 2 weeks, but still.

I made shoyu chicken with thigh meat, which the kids love. I also threw in some new potatoes, which soak up the sauce and get nice and soft and flavorful, but they ate them all up so there is none for the bento. I also roasted asparagus and red / yellow / green capsicum with olive oil and garlic powder. The broccoli is steamed plain, but it tastes very good dipped into the shoyu sauce, which is how the kids ate the whole head :) The white flowers are Japanese sweet potato (satsumaimo), with purple carrot detail -- I think they look like a certain daffodil... The tomato flowers have green olive centers and peapod detail.

Fruit side has half a black plum, black and red grapes, strawberries, golden raspberries, a blackberry and a champagne grape smilie.

I made fishcakes using halibut mixed with wild rice, rolled oats, green onion, yellow pepper, an egg, dry mustard, Old Bay and some flour. I refrigerated it to try to get it to keep its shape better, but it still made kind of a crumbly patty...there are 2 patties under Yoda. He also gets broccoli, broccoflower, tomato, peapods, purple carrot skewer, and sweet potato "blossoms".

Fruit side has yellow plums (I forget what these are called; I was sure they would be sour and I wouldn't need to get them again...but actually they are very sweet and I love them...too bad I can't remember which to get again :( strawberries, blackberries, golden raspberry and champagne grapes.

For all of you younglings, remember the wise words of the Master: "There is no try, only do."

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Another garden bento for MisterMan inspired by the kids' backyard play: these 2 frogs have moved into the fold of my favorite lounge chair, so now we don't lounge -- we only peer at them and see how they are doing, sometimes spray them with mist to cool them down from the summer heat.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

This is especially for you, young Padawan (Jedi Apprentice) MisterMan!
Everyone's favorite droids, C3PO (yellow pepper and radish) and R2D2 (quail egg, radish and lettuce detail)!
Butteryaki salmon, cucumbers, purple carrot skewer, roasted asparagus, peapods, black & white rice underneath. Also, black plum, lychee, strawberry, grapes and cantaloupe.
MisterMan recognized them right away (whew!) so I guess I did alright :) He's such an immense fan, he can tell me the color of everyone's lightsaber, and who uses Sith Lightning, and which episodes featured which battles. I'll hone my talents so I can do more characters for him :o)

Friday, September 4, 2009

My first-grader gets rice vermicelli with barbequed pork (Bún thịt nướng) from our local Vietnamese restaurant, with 2 shrimp. The "garden" part is from the purple carrot "pansy" and the radish "mushroom", as well as the tomato and the purple potato slices all served atop a bed of lettuce. The fruit bowl consists of honeydew nectarine, strawberries, pluots, grapes, blackberries and lychee.

I thought of making a garden bento because he and his sister had so much fun playing together in our garden yesterday after school, catching frogs, picking up leaves, and climbing in the lounge chairs... it was almost like summer is still here...

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

This one was for TinySprite, to keep her occupied while brother does his own thing for awhile...
Carrot / zucchini meatloaf on the bottom, with a nitrite-free ham dog lovin' her swiss cheese bone. Purple potato, cheese and strawberry details. Carrot flowers, yellow capsicum rings, tiny organic strawberries, and a couple peapods.

This is the teeniest stainless steel container they have at Daiso, but doesn't it hold a lot? 'Course, I didn't close it up, but still...

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About Me

I am a former research scientist turned stay-at-home-mom of 2 who got started with bento in an effort to help my kids learn that eating healthy and nutritious foods can be fun and cute. I make a bento lunch for my 14yo (9th grade) son & my 10yo (5th grade) daughter every school day, and post the pictures on my sherimiya ♥ flickr photostream. Here in this blog is where I describe each bento, and you'll also get a peek inside our family adventures. Thanks for taking a look, and please let me know what you think ^-^!